Issue 34 – 25, January 19, 2025
Will Canada get Trump-ed?
Many of us have been involved in the debates over the years on our relationship and trade between the United States and Canada. We heard that hat sales are off the charts this week, back in 1986 the sweatshirt market had a big hit in sales, “in the spirit of Canada” NO FREE TRADE”, today “Canada is Not for Sale”.
The debate is not much different between the two events, but it all comes down to how do we protect ourselves. The tariff threat can be interpreted as a means of exerting leverage over
Canada, on a range of issues, from border concerns to defense spending, to taxes and regulations imposed on U.S.-based tech giants, to a trade imbalance, we are not quite sure of the motivation, it certainly is a lack of respect from our main integrated trading partner.
A tariff is a tax imposed by one country on the goods and services imported from another country to influence it, raise revenues, protect competitive advantages or exert political leverage over another country. Tariffs result are higher consumer prices, job loses and increased government revenues.
Canada is the largest market in the world for U.S. exports, purchasing $440 billion in U.S.-made goods and services in 2023. The U.S. enjoys a strong surplus in services trade with Canada, which offsets much of the deficit on merchandise trade.
The Canadian Labour Congress stated, “This is a direct attack on workers from both sides of the border, threatening good, unionized jobs in key sectors like manufacturing, mining, energy, and agriculture—jobs that form the backbone of our economy.”
Read more - Who’s Subsidizing Whom? - Jim Sanford
Read more - Standing united against U.S. tariff threats | Canadian Labour Congress
Stopping out of pocket charges for Health Care.
Health care is primarily delivered by provinces and territories, it’s up to those governments to comply with the Canada Health Act. It is the responsibility of the Federal government to interpret and enforce the Canada Health Act. The Federal Government has a mechanism under the CHA to instruct the Provinces and Territories, called an Interpretation Letter, when they may need to encourage them to comply with the Act. And the tool the Federal Government has if they don’t, the federal government can withhold funding equivalent to the patient charges from the province’s transfer of health funding through the Canada Health Transfer.
The Congress of Union Retirees of Canada and the Canadian Health Coalition and the Congress of Union Retirees of Canada, and other healthcare unions and organizations have pushed for the release of an Interpretation Letter and have been advocating for the Minister to stop the out-of-pocket services, and extra billing Canadians are being forced to pay. Over two years ago the former Minister of Health pledged to issue a revised interpretation of the Canada Health Act to stop that from happening. It took the current Minister, Holland, almost two years after his predecessor, Jean-Yves Duclos, to issue an interpretation letter to provincial and territorial governments to stop for-profit clinics and associated health care providers from charging patients for medically necessary in-person care or face the withholding of federal funding for violating the Canada Health Act.
The federal government’s interpretation letter now clarifies that in addition Provincial and territorial health plans will cover primary care provided by nurse practitioners, pharmacists and midwives starting next year. Regulated health-care professionals who aren't doctors will be able to bill the government for medically necessary services that would otherwise be provided by a physician.
The changes are part of a new interpretation of the Canada Health Act that takes effect on April 1, 2026, the minister said, noting that the move is needed because some patients are paying out of pocket for necessary care, including at some private nurse practitioner clinics.
However, the letter did not offer any clarity to protect patients from charges for the same types of services if provided virtually. Instead, this has been left unresolved.
The former Minister had also identified virtual care and telemedicine as areas where some patients may be inappropriately paying out of pocket.
dvocates including CURC are concerned that billing for virtual care is not addressed in his current letter but will be pressing this issue and others in the up coming federal election.
Read more - Minister must do more to stop unfair patient charges – Canadian Health Coalition
SOS Medicare 3.0 Conference February 23-24, 2025, Ottawa
Join health care workers, union retirees, advocates and experts this February in Ottawa as we gear up to mobilize for public health care before the federal election. There have been two SOS Medicare conferences in the past, one in Ottawa in 1979 and one in Regina in 2007. Tommy Douglas, the father of Medicare, opened the 1979 Conference. The Canadian Health Coalition was founded out of this conference. It’s now time to reconvene for Medicare.
Conference info - SOS Medicare 3.0 Conference + CLC Political Action Training – Canadian Health Coalition